Blog Dissing

Quoted from http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/012297.php:

 

The Left Coaster: Stories of Love and Hate

In the 2000 election campaign, one of the key stories that led to Gore being falsely savaged as a liar and exaggerator was the "Love Story" incident. The basic story was simple. Vice President Gore claimed in passing during an interview that a friend of his - Eric Segal - had told a reporter in TN that the lead characters in Segal's book "Love Story" were based on Gore and his wife Tipper. The reality was that Gore had been a model but not Tipper. However, Gore had in fact accurately stated what the TN newspaper had claimed based on an interview with Eric Segal. It just so happened that the newspaper's claim was partly in error. The press corpse and the right-wing used this incident, among others, to character assassinate Gore in the 2000 election. (Read one of Bob Somerby's posts on this for more details.)

 

Today, we have the Trina Bachtel story. Believe it or not, my first reaction after I saw some alleged "liberal" bloggers go after Sen. Clinton☼ on this in knee-jerk fashion was: it's Love Story all over again - except Frank Rich, Maureen Dowd, and the dozens of other frauds in the media now have willing pals in parts of the formerly "liberal" blogosphere. To me, the 2008 Democratic primary campaign is a watershed event in the history of the progressive blogosphere. It has revealed that some of the alleged "progressive" bloggers are fundamentally no different than the media and the deranged right-wing bloggers they have long claimed to detest. The Trina Bechtel incident is the "crowning" event on a sickening trend in this election campaign - where Gore was replaced by Clinton and the "media" was supplemented by an influential portion of the allegedly "progressive" blogosphere. I can easily see an entire book being written on the work of these jokers who have turned the credibility of the blogosphere to dust because of their Clinton-hatred. There used to be a time when bloggers like Glenn Greenwald and Atrios used to write again and again about how the right-wing blogosphere was almost always wrong, especially in their attacks on Democrats. Today, it is clear that such blog posts could equally well be written about a prominent section of the formerly "progressive" blogosphere.

 

It has become crystal clear that Sen. Clinton had been truthful on the Trina Bechtel story...

Little O Hurts Big O

Uh-oh. Obama supporter Oprah takes a big dive - Costas Panagopoulos - Politico.com

How Colin Powell Broke My Liberal Heart

and Hillary Clinton won my conservative heart.

(Bumped-up. New comments.)

I started blogging shortly after Katrina, mostly as a reaction to the horrible work done by the Bush goof squad in response to the Gulf Coast disaster. My outrage about his incompetence was not passed through a racial filter. I titled this blog “Mad In The Middle” because politically I feel I’m in the middle of the spectrum, though I’m so far left on some issues I completely circle the spectrum and end-up agreeing with wingnuts—which disturbs me greatly. I was all about getting rid of the incompetence drowning our Republic. Race did not and still does not enter into this equation.

I had high hopes that the new Congress would demonstrate, if not leadership, at least competence. What they have demonstrated is spines of Jell-o—a willingness to find any reason to capitulate to the Bush Mafia. Most of the leadership needs to be replaced by people who are willing to take these criminals on and put them away.

To that end, I looked at the early presidential contenders and picked a candidate that I felt was most likely to achieve that goal. My candidate was John Edwards. To me, he represented the best choice among compassion, competence, and concern.

In the end, all political choice is about whittling down options. When Edwards suspended his campaign, I looked for the next most likely person to fulfill my agenda. That led me to Hillary Clinton. I leaned her direction because, based on past performance, I knew beyond a shadow of any doubt, that she could stand-up to any Republican challenge. After all, she has already endured decades of the GOP slime machine.

Race did not enter the equation, nor did gender. Guilt did not enter into my calculations either. No one today has been a slave and the “Sins of my father” meme is definitely not something I ascribe to, despite various groups seeking redress for grievances from hundreds of years ago. I know something of this since my own ethnic group has multitudes of grievances with the Feds over stolen land and the public at large for our continued marginalization. Yet, that is the past and this campaign was supposed , supposed, to be all about the future.

My support for Sen. Clinton has hardened to the point that if I cannot vote for her I will not vote. That has occurred almost entirely because of Sen. Obama’s fanatics—note that I did not say supporters for those fanatics go far beyond the pale when profaning Sen. Clinton. He has not helped himself with his church problems either.

I attended a church for many years until one Sunday when I said I will no longer listen to sermons telling me how I should vote. I sat through one of those anti-abortion, anti-woman rants; I did not sit through the second one when it started. I was offended by Wright’s damning of America but I thought the “riding dirty” element was even worse.

My liberal heart has always wanted a minority, especially a Native American, to be elected President so when Colin Powell rose to prominence, I saw a potential President. I even overlooked his involvement in My Lai and his later backstabbing of President Clinton ( who should’ve pulled a Harry Truman and fired him for his back door attacks on Gays In The Military) so strong did my liberal heart beat for a minority to become president. My moderate and conservative hearts also became all a-flutter with Powell. He had it all. He could have become President of the United States in heartbeat.

Then he fell in with George Bush, the man who has become the kiss of death for so many careers. In short, my hopes were left shattered on the floor of the United Nations and I could only think back to those heady days when Shirley Chisholm was receiving my vote for president.

So, in the end, my liberal heart will not beat for Sen. Obama because he is much more a conservative Republican than either of the other two candidates. I have a progressive agenda that includes among other things such radical ideas as legalizing marijuana. I have a moderate agenda that includes such things as allowing everyone’s vote to count (I am not just griping about Florida and Michigan but undemocratic procedures such as caucuses. ) My conservative agenda includes items like gun control, the draft, military service, etc. My conservative heart beats for candidates who really do love and appreciate this wonderful, if flawed, paradise we call America. So which candidate comes closest to all my hearts—there’s only one choice: Hillary Clinton.

Original post date: 4/1/08

Guest post at Taylor Marsh 4/10/08

An Electoral Point

Quoted from http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/012291.php:

The Left Coaster: Dizzy From The Spin

...How absurd is the system? As Sean Wilentz writes in Salon:

The continuing contest for the Democratic presidential nomination has become a frenzy of debates and proclamations about democracy. Sen. Barack Obama's campaign has been particularly vociferous in claiming that its candidate stands for a transformative, participatory new politics. It has vaunted Obama's narrow lead in the overall popular vote in the primaries to date, as well as in the count of elected delegates, as the definitive will of the party's rank and file. If, while heeding the party's rules, the Democratic superdelegates overturn those majorities, Obama's supporters claim, they will have displayed a cynical contempt for democracy that would tear the party apart.

These arguments might be compelling if Obama's leads were not so reliant on certain eccentricities in the current Democratic nominating process, as well as on some blatantly anti-democratic maneuvers by the Obama campaign. Obama's advantage hinges on a system that, whatever the actual intentions behind it, seems custom-made to hobble Democratic chances in the fall. It depends on ignoring one of the central principles of American electoral politics, one that will be operative on a state-by-state basis this November, which is that the winner takes all. If the Democrats ran their nominating process the way we run our general elections, Sen. Hillary Clinton would have a commanding lead in the delegate count, one that will only grow more commanding after the next round of primaries, and all questions about which of the two Democratic contenders is more electable would be moot.

Unlike the Republicans, the Democrats in primary states choose their nominee on the basis of a convoluted system of proportional distribution of delegates that varies from state to state and that obtains in neither congressional nor presidential elections. It is this eccentric system that has given Obama his lead in the delegate count. If the Democrats heeded the "winner takes all" democracy that prevails in American politics, and that determines the president, Clinton would be comfortably in front. In a popular-vote winner-take-all system, Clinton would now have 1,743 pledged delegates to Obama's 1,257. If she splits the 10 remaining contests with Obama, as seems plausible, with Clinton taking Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Puerto Rico, and Obama winning North Carolina, South Dakota, Montana, Oregon and Guam, she'd pick up another 364 pledged delegates. She'd have 2,107 before a single superdelegate was wooed. You need 2,024 to be the Democratic nominee. Game over. No more blogospheric ranting about Clinton "stealing" the nomination by kidnapping superdelegates or cutting deals at a brokered convention...

The Clinton Rules Video

"Brian Holman tells hospital story to Clinton." This video perfectly illustrates the Clinton Rules. Given the flap over this and the Lying Hillary meme, the video clearly illustrates the story. See "No Quarter" for a complete explanation.

Offensive Website

It is exactly what it says it is-- a list of REPUBLICAN OFFENDERS numbering 272 names, though I didn't see any of our local crooks, so it is not all-inclusive.

America In Dire Straits...

...sailing around the Horn of Stupidity toward the Port of Global Irrelevance.

The U.S. establishment media in a nutshell - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com:

'"In the past two weeks, the following events transpired. A Department of Justice memo, authored by John Yoo, was released which authorized torture and presidential lawbreaking. It was revealed that the Bush administration declared the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights to be inapplicable to 'domestic military operations' within the U.S. The U.S. Attorney General appears to have fabricated a key event leading to the 9/11 attacks and made patently false statements about surveillance laws and related lawsuits. Barack Obama went bowling in Pennsylvania and had a low score...

Here are the number of times, according to NEXIS, that various topics have been mentioned in the media over the past thirty days:

"Yoo and torture" - 102

"Mukasey and 9/11" -- 73

"Yoo and Fourth Amendment" -- 16

"Obama and bowling" -- 1,043

"Obama and Wright" -- More than 3,000 (too many to be counted)

"Obama and patriotism" - 1,607

"Clinton and Lewinsky" -- 1,079..."'

Counting Split Hairs

Democrat Taylor Marsh Broadcasts Live Talk Radio and Blogs Politics: "Have a chat. This post from Sean Wilentz ought to get you started:

... .. Crucially, Team Obama doesn't want to count the votes of Michigan and Florida. (And let's note that in a winner-take-all system, Clinton would still be leading in delegates, 1,430 to 1,257, even without Michigan and Florida.) Under the existing system, Obama's current lead in the popular vote would nearly vanish if the results from Michigan and Florida were included in the total, and his lead in pledged delegates would melt almost to nothing. The difference in the popular vote would fall to 94,005 out of nearly 27 million cast thus far -- a difference of a mere four-tenths of 1 percentage point -- and the difference in delegates would plummet to about 30, out of the 2,024 needed to win. Add those states' votes to the totals, and take a sober look at Clinton's popular-vote victories in virtually all other large states, and the electoral dynamic changes. She begins to look like the almost certain nominee. ... .."

Iraq Desurging

Hullabaloo

"...[Cokie Roberts] She doesn't have a clue what the hell she's talking about, and if she's being informed about Iraq by "Sunni, Shi'a, po-tay-to po-tah-to" McCain and his man-servant Huckleberry Graham it'd be a wonder if she could pick the country out on a map. We have an important week coming up with A Man Called Petraeus and Ryan Crocker testifying before Congress, and if this is the sober analysis we can expect out of that, we're all doomed. Because in point of fact, Iraq is at a major crossroads. The Basra offensive was a complete failure, as large swaths of the five-years-in-the-making Iraqi Army essentially refused to fight. Now Maliki is basically forming his own militia from the pro-Iranian Badr Brigade, and the intra-Shiite warfare is raging, with US troops dying today inside the Green Zone and at forward operating bases in Baghdad. The political situation is stalemated, tensions are rising within the Sadrist Shia and the Sunni Awakening groups and practically everyone else, and whatever gains have been made by the surge have vanished..."

The Daily Flashback:Mortgage Edition

Senator Clinton's Remarks on Subprime Lending to the NCRC From March 2007

O'Booing The Pledge

Obama Supporters Take the Low Rhode : NO QUARTER: "I wish these people were “exceptions to the rule” among Obama supporters. But, reports of delegates at caucuses and conventions prove their behavior is a too-often norm for Obama’s followers. Someone I know was a delegate at the King County convention today in Seattle, Wash. where the Obama delegates booed so loudly when they were asked to say the Pledge of Allegiance that the convention chair gave up and skipped the pledge. (Maybe they took their cue from “The One”?)...."

Lord. I can see the GOP commercial now.

Obama On 9/11

Quoted from http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/04/05/jersey-girl-takes-on-obama-over-911-comment/#more-2067:

 

Jersey Girl Takes on Obama Over 9/11 Comment : NO QUARTER

9/11: Where Barack Obama and Condi Rice Sound Alarmingly Alike

 

...Barack Obama appeared on MSNBC’s Hardball last night and was asked about the way he would handle the 3 a.m. phone call.

 

The transcript:

 

MATTHEWS: Let me give you a scene that may face you in the next year or two, where the national security adviser calls you at 3:00 in the morning and tells that you a couple of jet — commercial jets have been hijacked. And they believe it is al Qaeda. And, as we know, al Qaeda always tries a second time. They tried for the World Trade Center after ‘93. They came back in ‘01.

 

They’re heading for the Capitol. What do you do?

 

OBAMA: Well, look, I am hesitant to engage in hypotheticals like that, because…

 

MATTHEWS: But it has been predictable.

 

OBAMA: Oh, well, the–I don’t think anybody predicted 9/11. And, so, we don’t know what kinds of circumstances are going to come up. ..

 

Sigh.

The Daily Flashback

"Give 'Em Hell Harry Taylor" Edition

Tears of a Clown

Quoted from http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/crying-wolf-and-crocodil-tears-by.html:

 

Hullabaloo: Crying Wolf And Crocodile Tears by digby

Glenn updated his story about Mukasey literally choking up in public over the supposed fact that FISA prevented the government from stopping 9/11. It turns out that he was, as predicted, talking through his a...

 

... If we can get through the next nine months without the country being blown up, and we can elect a new administration that doesn't come from the same martial wingnut perspective, maybe we can get an accurate assessment of what's needed. (no guarantee there, but at least a chance.) Until then, at the very least, there should be nothing done --- not one piece of legislation passed, not one initiative undertaken --- to change the status quo. No SOFA, no FISA, no nothing. The whole national security regime will just have to muddle along with the laws and procedures that are already in place...

O'Negativity

Quoted from http://www.taylormarsh.com/archives_view.php?id=27347:

 

Democrat Taylor Marsh Broadcasts Live Talk Radio and Blogs Politics

Via Philadelphia Inquirer's Dave Davies:

 

It was my turn to interview Barack Obama today, and ask something that’s been on my mind: He talks about changing the culture in Washington, and running a positive campaign, and while his public statements and ads have taken the high road, his campaign staff has consistently urged reporters to write negative stories about Clinton and sent releases about things like her “legacy of misleading voters.” ...

 

It's what I've been writing since Obama's "D-Punjab" smear on Clinton back in June 2007, or the financing hit from him, while the dueling headlines showed him more positively. I couldn't possibly link all of the examples. But remember Obama swallowing Bob Novak's swill, then making a fuss about it? What I wrote when I got a hold of Obama's race-baiting South Carolina memo (more here). Jesse Jackson, Jr. Oh, and who can forget Obama's "Bush-Cheney lite" remark? It's just the the traditional media has had their collective heads so far... well, let's just say they missed it, because they don't like Hillary Clinton. Obama's their guy. But the facts have been out there for months.

Dobbs on Anti-Clinton Bias

This is a long one but it is interesting-- if you believe in the Clinton rules, which I do.

Helium Leaders

The following is from commenter Virginian at Donna Brazile Was Behind The Stripping of The FL/MI Delegations? - TalkLeft: The Politics Of Crime: "Brazile is a political lightweight that is often given positions and podiums that are meant for heavy weights...many of the people that came into notoriety on Clintons '92 coat-tails fall into the same group,

But Brazile specifically makes for good TV...she is a political cannibal - and networks include her because of this...she was part of Karl Rove's conference call to get the political pulse each week when he served in the white house - she often will trash our candidates by repeating RNC talking points - she loves the spotlight and will do anything to keep it on herself, the sooner this is accepted by the party the sooner we can cut the string and bring in real leadership committed to real party building...

The problem is we have a lightweight for a party leader (I like Gov. Dean a lot, but he is a light weight), we have a light weight currently running a successful nomination campaign, and we have 100 lightweights pontificating about it online and in the media...when you put a down in the mud poke 'em in the eye person on TV like James Carville, all the lightweights scream that he is playing to rough (Judas comment)...I think we've lost our nerve for a fight, and have settled for folks like Gov. Dean, and accepted the spotlight lovers like Brazile...to our own detriment...we may win '08 but our majority status we're clinging too by a thread...we shouldn't forget that."

We cannot beat the GOP by being wimps. Period.

O'Flashback

September 30, 2007...

Obama Vows To 'Do What's Right': "TAMPA - Barack Obama hinted during a Tampa fundraiser Sunday that if he's the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, he'll seat a Florida delegation at the party's national convention, despite national party sanctions prohibiting it.

Obama also appeared to violate a pledge he and the other leading candidates took by holding a brief news conference outside the fundraiser. That was less than a day after the pledge took effect Saturday, and Obama is the first Democratic presidential candidate to visit Florida since then..."

"Save Me From Myself"

House of the Rising Sons: BAILING OUT WALL STREET: "A sick feeling rises from my gut. I've rarely seen the level of asskissing going on right now with Ben Bernanke. We didn't bail out the shareholders, but we did bail out the lenders. Dodd (D-CT)and Menendez (D-NJ)stand up for regular Americans by actually asking some serious questions, especially Menendez. Shelby (R-AL) actually wasn't too bad. Tester (D-MT) was okay.

But for a majority of the others, especially Bob Corker (R-TN)- it's a mad rush to thank the Fed for saving the big corporations from the weally weally nefarious FREE MARKET..."

"I love the free market. I love the free market.
Until it works
.....works
....works
..works"

America Along The Event Horizon

If you don't get the title, try this.

The Swamp: Americans: Nation on wrong track: "Rough terrain for a presidential election:

More than 80 percent of Americans surveyed say the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll -- recording the highest measure of discontent since this poll started asking the question in the early 1990s.

The survey finds 81 percent saying 'things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track.' That is up from 69 percent a year ago, and 35 percent in early 2002, the Times reports..."

Along with 80,000 jobs lost in March, you would think that a third term for George Bush would be out of the question. You would be wrong.